Conversations For Transformation:
Essays Inspired By The Ideas Of Werner Erhard
Conversations For Transformation
Essays By Laurence Platt
Inspired By The Ideas Of Werner Erhard
And More
I'll Think Of Something
Honig Vineyards, Rutherford, California, USA
June 9, 2009
"Then he waited, marshaling his thoughts and brooding over his still
untested powers. For though he was master of the world, he was not
quite sure what to do next.
But he would think of something."
... Arthur C Clarke embodying Star-Child, in the closing words of
the grand finale of "2001: A Space Odyssey"
I am indebted to
Laurel Scheaf
who inspired this conversation.
Transformation
is the bedrock on which to stand before life has any
chance of being lived as a creation. Without
transformation,
arguably it's simply not possible to live life as a
creation. Without
transformation,
arguably all you'll ever do is fix things, change things,
alleviate things, protect against things ...
in other words, learn to become a smart rat and ensure the
essentials for survival are in place. But come up with
anything truly new? Create something outside
of a well respected smart rat's repertoire of survival strategies? Not
likely.
It's pernicious. Oftentimes what looks like creativity isn't creativity
at all. It's survival but it doesn't look like survival. It
looks like creativity but it's not creativity. You may
"create" a piece of jewelry. You may "create"
a piece of music. You may even "create" a new idea, a new
conversation. It may look like, it may feel
like, it may seem like creativity. But if the context in
which you create, for which you create is survival,
then it's really not creativity - it's simply survival
disguised as creativity.
With
transformation
comes a new awareness: that survival is already assured. It's
been turning out this way for millennia. It'll continue turning out
this way for millennia more - which brings the realization if you
choose it the way it is, it'll all turn out because it's already all
turned out. This, when the full implication sinks in, is
enormously freeing.
Werner
Erhard
famously
says
"Things are the way they
are, and they aren't the way they aren't.".
Just as
famously,
classic
vintage
Erhard
is misunderstood to be a philosophy, a belief, a trite bon mot,
or even a balm to bring on tolerance and acceptance. It's not.
In fact, as any of the above, it's worthless. As any of
the above, it's meaningless drivel which, when misapplied, is used to
justify apathy ("If things are the way they are, and they
aren't the way they aren't, then why bother?") .
Yet as an experience, "things are the way they are, and they
aren't the way they aren't" is simply
what's so.
Don't analyze it. Just look. As an experience, "things
are the way they are, and they aren't the way they aren't" is true.
Anything else as an observation of what's out there just
adds
inauthenticity.
It could be said the
critical mass
of experience which kindled the first occurrence of
transformation
on
our planet
came about through allowing things to be the way they are and the way
they aren't. This essentially
Zen
way of looking allows what's there to show up. And in the wake
of things being the way they are and not being the way they aren't,
what has the space to show up - arguably authentically for
the first time - is who you really are.
Gee, I hope you get this! When all the fixing, changing, alleviating,
protecting against, and surviving are set aside, when things are
allowed to be the way they are and the way they aren't, what shows up
ie what has a chance of showing up for the first time ever is who
you really are - not like an analysis, not like a strategy,
not even like a philosophy or a belief, and certainly not like a recipe
for success, but like an experience.
It's tempting to add "like an observation" to "like an
experience" when describing who you really are. But the trouble with
"like an observation" when describing who you really are
is there's distance between the observer and the observed
which, in the case of who you really are, doesn't work.
Observing who you really are doesn't work as well as
experiencing who you really are, nor as well as simply
being who you really are.
So: where then does creativity not like disguised survival
show up? It's already all turned out. Things are the way they are and
they aren't the way they aren't. Being who you really are is assured.
Coming from that, all there is to do is create. Coming from
that, any act is an act of creation. Coming from
that, it's impossible for any act not to be an act
of creation. Coming from that, it's impossible to do anything
but create.
At any moment, I may not have a plan for what I'm going to create,
speak, or do next. Looking ahead to the rest of my life, I may not be
aware now of what I'm going to create, speak, or do ever again.
Even though I don't need to, even though it's OK not to, even though
it's OK the way it is,
I'll think of something.